Parks and Recreation

So when it comes to sitcoms like Parks and Recreation, or the Office, or How I Met Your Mother, I don't usually do season reviews. I figured out a while ago that while there are 9 seasons of Scrubs and while most of those seasons were good (I'm looking at you 9th season), the different seasons of these shows are very much the same. And if you're watching them casually like I am, the only way you get an inkling that you're moving onto another season is if something huge happens in an episode and/or characters are moving to a new season-long story arc.

The same thing happened with Parks and Recreation. So in order to do this review in a fashion that won't cost you hours to read, I will not be dissecting every single season, I will be more talking about the series as a whole and maybe highlight the things that I really liked and the things that I thought were kind of weird.

Since the beginning of time, NBC has always looked for ways to remain relevant and popular. In 2005, they found a popular way to do that by releasing The Office, a recreation of a British mockumentary style show about a bunch of people in an office dealing with their idiot boss. The show in America was a huge success. In 2009, they thought, why don't we try and catch that lightning in a bottle once again and do the exact same thing but this time in government. Hence the first season of Parks and Recreation.

And yeah, the first season of Parks and Recreation is basically The Office set in the Parks and Recreation agency of a local city government. Pawnee was just the new Scranton. Leslie Knope (played by Amy Poehler) was just your new Michael Scott. Ann Perkins (played by Rashida Jones) was kind of your new Pam Beasely. Tom Haverford (played by Aziz Ansari) was your crossover between Kelly and Ryan. Mark Brandanawitz (played by Paul Schneider, yeah he was a thing in this show) was your crossover of Jim, Ryan, and a little bit of Roy. April Ludgate (played by Aubrey Plaza) was your weird mixture of Dwight, Stanley, and a little bit of Creed. Andy Dwyer (played by Chris Pratt) was your mixture of Phyllis, and Michael Scott. And Ron... well Ron I think was kind of his own character but he wasn't truly developed.

You get the point. And with the mockumentary single camera style, the first season of Parks and Rec really isn't that funny. It feels like a weird Office knock off and nobody really felt like they were their own character. There's even that really awkward silence humor in the first season that really only works with Steve Carrell and even The Office moved away from that after a while, probably before the season they were on in 2009 when this show came out.

Then there was a shift. I don't know what happened. I don't know if there were different writers, or if NBC decided to let the writers actually write Parks and Rec instead of The Office episodes, but slowly but surely Parks and Rec started to get really good.

I find this happened with not just me but everyone I run into who has watched the show in its entirety. My girlfriend was having difficulty getting past the first season and the minute the second season picked up, she was hooked and finished the series in a couple weeks. It's not like the show gets better from one season to another right away but slowly you start to get funnier jokes, funnier situations, and more importantly, it doesn't feel like the characters are ripping off other ones.

I mean that's always going to happen. There are always your character archetypes that show up in every comedy. But the best example of this is in Amy Poehler's interpretation of Leslie Knope.

Leslie Knope becomes more of a strong willed, competent worker. She is wickedly smart, she's hard working, she's still a little bit of an oddball, but her workers respect her and owe a lot to her. In fact a lot of the show only happens because people say they owe Leslie so much. When Leslie became Leslie Knope and not Michael Scott is when the show got really good.

And they got rid of Mark Brandanowizc (I have no idea how to spell his name)

I'm not saying Paul Schneider pulled the show down but I've read that he didn't even know what his character's motivations were. It's kind of odd because he is actually a pretty big part of the first two seasons and then he leaves and he is never heard of again. I don't know what they could have done, I feel like that would have been an interesting episode if he had come back, but nope. He leaves and is never heard from ever again.

But it's a good thing because then these two came in. 

The show definitely got better after the first season but if you didn't like it after the third then this is probably not your show. 

Ben Wyatt (played by Adam Scott) and Chris Traeger (played by Rob Lowe) are two characters that really elevated the show. They definitely didn't do it single handedly and the credit does go to Amy Poehler, Nick Offerman, and the others in the original cast that finally got their characters on track, but these two fit in the cast like a glove and really elevated what the audience was looking for all along.

The part that I really liked about the show was that it promoted as sense of purpose and faith in the government that you just don't see in media today. That's not to say that this show is super pro-government. There are definitely parts where they show the bureaucracy and inefficiency of government. But the heart of this show really comes with the striving from the characters to do the right thing no matter what and I think that's one of the main draws of Parks and Rec. It's just kind of a feel good show.

I think what sets this show apart from other shows about politics or government was that Parks and Rec didn't set out to be overly critical of the government, it didn't set out to be in the same league as VEEP or other largely political shows. It focused on characters first and commentary was more of a side thought or theme. The show wasn't used as a platform, but it still got the message out, and effectively.

And I really cant stress the characters enough.

Nick Offerman is a great example because he created a character that is now a meme. There are compilation videos of the best phrases about libertarianism from Ron Swanson. He's great. But what's more is that they were able to create a non-sexual relationship with him and Leslie that worked absolutely perfectly.

This actually becomes a focal point for the last season. I'll talk about that more but its a great example of how, when they were allowed to develop their characters correctly in their natural progression, it became obvious that these two were a great duo to create a lot of comedy and a lot of heart off of. And that's kind of what a lot of the character's relationships become, examples of two extremes coming into conflict but maintaining that heart. In the example of Leslie and Ron, Leslie believes in the good government can do while Ron believes in limiting the government as much as possible. Leslie is upbeat and expresses her feelings, Ron is solemn and closed off. 

Andy and April are a great example of that as well.

Andy is this dumb but happy go lucky guy who loves everything and everybody. April is this weird goth-like teenager-like woman who doesn't like anybody, and yet the chemistry these two have is really well done.

Also, props to Chris Pratt. There's a definite point in the show where you know he was gearing up for Guardians of the Galaxy. He started the show as this chubby guy and he becomes Starlord. All the same, while there is a little bit less of him in the show near the end, I never really felt like he didn't stay through till the end. He seemed very committed to the show up to its end and I have to give him props for that.

I don't really know what I can say about the show in general without getting too into the nitty gritty which is something I want to avoid. I will say if you decide to watch this show (it is on Netflix) that you get through the first season as fast as you can. The second season gets better and if you don't like it by the third season, you're not going to like the rest of it. But that third through sixth season really is some great sitcom, primetime comedic gold.

But I do want to talk about the seventh season.

So at the end of the 6th season, Leslie is looking forward to the future and things look really bright for her. They actually fast forward 3 years later in 2017 and show how things have kind of really worked out for them, but it's only a snippet.

Now the 6th season didn't exactly provide a lot of closure, but had it this would have been a really great way to end the show. I don't think a lot of people would have complained with the ending of the 6th season being the closing scene... but then there's a 7th season that continues from that 3 years on scene.

The show aired in 2014, so it jumped 3 years to 2017. And with it, the show jumps into this very strange and ridiculous alternate reality of 2017. It might just be because I think we had a more cheery vision of 2017 in 2014 than I did when I watched this show actually in 2017, but even if I had watched in 2014, I still feel as though it would have been strange to see this very weird futuristic atmosphere in a show that never seemed this weird before. While Parks and Rec was always a ridiculous show, the seventh season took it in a whole new level of ridiculousness that didn't really fit with the atmosphere of the show in the past 6 seasons.

I don't know if other people had an issue with it, but for me it, the moments that would have usually felt really genuine felt a little bit manufactured.

The show does a lot better of a job closing out the series than the 9th season of Scrubs, and I don't know the backstory of the last season the way I know the backstory of the last season of Scrubs, but I wouldn't be surprised if they never planned to do that seventh season but instead were forced to because the studio wanted to milk one more season of a very profitable show out of them. If I was a writer on that show, I'd pull out all the stops and use this as an opportunity to just try out all the wacky ideas I've been keeping back because I needed to have a job after a season. But when a season comes to an end, why not go off the rails a little bit.

It's not horrible, and I still recommend watching every single season of Parks and Recreation, I just want to warn you that the last season is strange. It does give almost a complete episode for each character to give them a good send off, so that is something to consider when looking for a show that creates the closure for the audience that have spent hours wth these fictional characters and developed a relationship with them.

Overall, I highly recommend Parks and Recreation. I'm sure a lot of people have seen it and I'm just preaching to the choir at this point, but if you haven't, I'm recommending a show with a feel good vibe and a well performed comedy.

But what do you think? Have you watched all of Parks and Recreation? How does it stack up against other sitcoms? What did you think of that last season? Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films and TV shows I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time.